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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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The attack kind of thwarted any immediate hope of peace and cooperation. Though it was far from guaranteed that it could have been achieved from the situation they had been in. At least this gave him more practice with his powers, and hopefully more control in the future, though it also shows that his control isn't absolute. They aren't pieces on his chess board to move around, they are at best the equivalent of soldiers under his (questionably established) command.
5998926 It depends on quite a number of things, such as the clarity of the pony being controlled, and existing orders, and such. Not all pony mutants are created equal. Sandra is still mostly Sandra, while Lone Wing is pretty deep in, though not as far as one can go, considering he does hold rational conversations and does accept 'no' as a valid response.
Now that just raises more questions! How the heck does that work? Were they holding hands? Did it happen in their sleep? EXPLAIN OR BE EXTERMINATED!
5998953 special cuddle times.
I know how to contain the infected in the camps next time, use this beast!
Either way, how did no soldiers see the ponies escaping. Even if it were one or two soldiers they would be shooting at the escapes.
Did someone say carpet bomb?
5998926
Let's be fair here, there was no chance of peace or diplomacy while he was being held captive, the ponies continued to be murdered, ignoring his requests and promises of further cooperation for some leniency towards other ponies, outright experimentation, and not even considering him a person by anyone other than Richard, who was willing to drug him up for science's sake.
He was at best a hostage.
Either way he was asked to stop the attack, and he did. If he gave the city back to them too, they know he can be dealt with.
I hope he orders ponies to abandon the city before they get caught in the crossfire.
Or try to stop the carpet bombing of he has the power to do so.
5999197
I certainly see your points, but I actually disagree. Assuming William -could- actually order them to stand down under the circumstances, with Richard's CO clearly seeing the strategic significance of William's ability there was at least a plausible path to peace there. They could, in theory, have gotten William to back off the ponies, letting tensions cool while the CO gets the soldiers to hold back. Then they could have discussed solutions, like maybe coordinating with the ponies to allow the soldiers to sweep the city and evacuate the uninfected, or alternatively, maybe evacuated the ponies to a suitable quarantine region (giving them a bunch of undeveloped grasslands seems ideal for all involved: an urban center is a lot more valuable to the humans than the ponies, especially without the farming and logistic infrastructure to feed themselves).
The fact that the humans were in a position of power gave them the freedom to ease off the trigger and attempt a negotiation from a position where they feel safe enough to attempt it. Now? It's going to be real hard getting them back to that safe of a state of mind to even talk again. Leaving them to fall back to shoot first, ask questions never. Opening a new line of communication will be very challenging, especially now that the tech infrastructure is falling apart, so the possibility of just using a phone is increasingly unviable. Neither side is likely to be able to trust that one of their own can walk forward to act as a diplomat without 'dying' (being ponified in the case of the humans) before peaceful contact can be made.
I won't say it's impossible though.
And honestly, even if William had been willing to negotiate and held enough sway to make good on his side, how well could he achieve that goal without even knowing of the existence of the Council? It seems clear he needed to get the info he's about to get in order to even possibly be the bridge of peace the humans need him to be. But once he does have the knowledge, power and influence he's going to need, how will he make contact again safely? Let's see!
5999249
The humans were never in a position of power. They were in a position of desperation and still didn't treat him correctly, save for Richard who even still wished to randomly drug him in an attempt to see if they could affect the connection somehow.
Cindy wasn't wrong in saying they'd cut him up to see how he worked if they felt it necessary. They were at the humans' mercy. The attempt to peacefully resolve the situation ended as soon as Richard hinted what he wanted to do. I think it's no coincidence the attack happened immediately after.
The fact remains, that camp should have been wiped out, and it mysteriously wasn't. If the ponies abandon the city on their own, that's another sign William is keeping his word. Unilaterally, without coercion. That's a stronger position than being under threat to do it, especially when the humans who requested it in the first place offered no concessions other than it will get much worse if it didn't happen.
I do agree without more information like the council there was little he could do anyway, so we shall see where the rabbit hole goes. As for opening line of communication, a single pony with a white flag strapped to the barrel calling out for a meeting and to not shoot?
Assuming the force bubble Cindy mentioned being able to do isn't capable of stopping bullets. If it is, William might be able to just walk/teleport directly there and weather the reaction.
5999317
I think the humans had enough of an illusion of power to be able to try for peace, until that illusion was shattered. Richard's plan was the wrong one strategically (as well as morally). Even if they could disrupt the other S-Ranks that means going from having a small number of leaders they could hope to negotiate with to a disorganized mob they would have to fight to the last pony (even if they went for non-lethal).
Except there was someone in a position of authority over Richard, in the room, making it clear he understood they needed the S-Rank alive and fully functional to have a chance at going forward in a direction other than violence. And he had the authority to overrule Richard and used it. You might be right about it being no coincidence though: did Cindy call them without William's knowledge? Or it could be a coincidence, as that is just how long it took the Council to organize their rescue.
This overture could help in the long run, once lines of communication are able to be established, assuming anyone actually noticed enough to let it effect the humans' thoughts on the matter.
Could work. Would you be willing to be that pony? Or to risk that pony in William's shoes? If you were one of the soldiers, knowing that pony might flip out and kiss you or a comrade in arms and cost them their humanity in an instant, and that if you try to take precautions against that you are risking an overwhelming swarm doing a rescue, do you accept the flag on face value or take the shot? (Also, where do you even get a white flag? Though I'm sure they could jury rig a makeshift one.)
That's a good point, though I'd probably assume it is at best "bullet resistant". Especially when risking my life with it the first time.
Seems at least somewhat likely to be how things go down though.
Well, that raises all kinds of uncomfortable questions...
In any case, jailbreak successful, though now there's no clear course of action beyond getting out of the blast radius. Will may be in charge, but his forces can choose to disobey, and the imperative to spread pony essence is strong in a lot of them. Peaceful coexistence is going to take a lot of effort from both sides, if it's even possible.
escaped yes but to ware?
5999364
You and I read that exchange very differently. I could explain why, but in this case if Cindy had the negative reaction I did even if Will had your more positive one . . .
There is more options than complete trust and execution, as shown when they capture Will in the first place. Make the pony stand down, send hazmat person to secure.
5999703
And Cindy's reaction might have been enough to thwart any possibility of that path to peace, even if the Council's rescue mission wasn't already en route.
Absolutely true, but having the hazmat guy bring in the seemingly peaceful pony seems rather exactly like what they just did with Will, so how do they know it won't end up with the exact same results? Will waved the white flag, metaphorically, and we see how that played out. The soldiers on the scene are going to have to trust that for some reason it's going to be different this time than the last time a pony surrendered.. but why should they?
It's not so much doomed to failure as dangerously tense. Everyone -could- act in good faith and assume the same from their counterparts. But will they? We'll just have to wait and see.
5999761
I believe you are taking the wrong lessons from this. Neither Will nor did his companions do anything but cooperate and act friendly. The attack came from without. The invading force took all the prisoners. Nothing else can be concluded for sure. Will at no point acted hostile.
The only thing that could possibly be directed against him is he organized the attack (something he can do with or without his envoy being accepted), and he escaped on his own, which is expected even from a human prisoner.
Will was captured against his will. An envoy delivering a message, possibly acting as Will's mouthpiece for a discussion (fair since the military men were also mouthpieces with no authority to negotiate on their own) would be going there on purpose for the express purpose of dialogue.
So at this point, there are essentially four factions currently playing the game; Equestria, Humanity, the Wild Infected, and the Council.
Equestria will be trying to figure out exactly what went wrong and fix their grave mistake. It is possible that further communications will be established between them and Earth which will help defuse the situation. Humanity is of course trying to shut down a devastating supernatural virus that is obliterating their species. The infected ponies are in various states of dementia, and basically just creating anarchy everywhere they go. Author only knows who the Council are or what their motive is, though I would guess that they're a collective of the 'lucid' infected (apparently Changelings, but we don't know if they're ALL changelings).
William, being an S-Class infected who can command the renegades and speak with Luna, is a powerful asset to all of the factions.
5999761
Humanity's only chance for peace at this point, I think, is for William to get the army into a dialogue with Luna. They need more information.
5999873
I'm more speculating what a human soldier, with all the lack of true information that they have from this, might believe. And what actions that might lead to.
And yes, I agree, Will is faultless in this. It's clear from our reader perspective that he has been doing his best all along to minimize both pony casualties and conversions. He wants the ponies to live (preferably uninjured) but also wants the humans to be free to remain human. I don't think the humans necessarily know this. And there's also the question of what the Council will say. A lot comes down to their willingness to deal peacefully with the humans as well.
5999896
But does it have to be a random soldier with only hearsay? The camp wasn't destroyed. Richard and his superior are possibly alive and uninfected, and can communicate what they experienced. Richard was alone with Will for a bit too. He'd probably remark at the negative reaction Cindy had to his comment on attempting to cut the link. That's hardly going in blind.
Either way, I look forward to more.
5999947
Depends on how well the humans do at coordinating their own info. Is Richard going to be the one on the front lines seeing the white flag pony come toward them? It's probably going to be a random soldier there. Are they going to shoot first? check in with their superiors first? The pony can probably improve its odds by keeping its distance until approached, etc. to be as non threatening as possible and give the humans time to think about their reactions, communicate up the chain of command, and hopefully bring that knowledge to bear.
You're right that the camp wasn't destroyed, but it was attacked, and that means survivors who watched their buddies get infected.
Hopefully cooler heads -will- prevail when contact is established. We'll see!
5999431
Yep. This is why Cindy is my favorite part of this story thus far (followed by TatzlSandra), because you just can't get a read on her. Is she a part of Will? Someone else who mysteriously joined Will when he was sleeping? Something from The Void that merged with Will's memories and Cadance's essence to form something new?
The two times Will managed to send commands to other ponies, it felt less like he was discovering it and more like Cindy was teaching him how to do it, which would imply she can (and may have been) doing it herself without saying anything. I do get that she is genuine in wanting to coexist with Will and helping him, but at the same time she also seems to be corrupting him . . .
She certainly is the
devil'spony's advocate though.6001135 Sandy is a nickname of Sandra.
I have a feeling that Lone Wing would have an absolute blast playing this: